Baby Countdown

You see that little "Countdown to Baby" widget in the top right corner? It's so cute, isn't it? The girl looks like a super model wearing a strap-on pregnancy pillow. She's wearing a cute outfit everyday and the outfit fits perfectly. Her pants don't cut into her waist while falling down at the same time. And her belly stays the same size, day after day after day. She's never sitting on the couch eating chips or ice-cream. She never seems out of breath, and I never see her heading to the cabinet for more Tums. And right below her it says I only have 17 days to go.

I'll tell you what might have to go (well, besides me every 2 hours). . . that stupid, cute little tracker.

Here's me two weeks ago. I think I'm about twice that size now, or at least I feel it :)

Don't get me wrong. I'm ecstatic that I have a measly 17 days to go. I'm 95% of the way to the finish! However, seeing that obnoxious little tracker subtract one day at a time, SO slowly, is getting maddening. Also, knowing that with Tali, 17 days to go really meant 27 days to go is a little frightening!

Honestly, things are going well. The heartburn comes and goes. The restless nights and waking up with aching hips or ribs comes and goes too. I really can't complain. I'm just impatient!

So, I guess you'll know if next week is a good week or not based on whether the adorable little tracker girl remains . . . or mysteriously disappears.

Updates

This is an update of totally random photos and stories from the last few months to make up for my lack of posting.

Dance Party USA. You know how dance parties (especially at bedtime) just break out sometimes? I'm not sure where Liz was during this one, but I got a rare picture of Josh dancing for the camera and a great pictures of Tali doing the booty dance she loves so much.

This is Toby. Remember him? He's almost a year old and not as dumb as he looks :) He's a fun dog and awesome to run and hike with. However, he's still a puppy and sometimes does not-so-smart things like climb under the arm-rest and onto the table. At least he realized he was stuck and waited to get rescued rather than jumping down and dragging the chair all over.



Skiing at Hilltop. Hilltop is a little ski area just a couple miles from our house. Josh and Liz skied there about once a week for a few months this winter. Liz's ultimate goal was to keep up with Josh and I think she just about accomplished it. Sometimes she makes me nervous because she'll throw caution to the wind in order to get what she wants. At least she knows how to stop.

Tali and I usually watched while they skied, but Tali did get to ski a couple times this winter. One day I dragged her up the bunny hill about 20 times (there's no rope tow) and she made it down once by herself without crashing. She's just as brave and tough as Liz and never cried. After about three times down the bunny hill she wanted to hop on the "real lift."

Valentine's Day! Here's Tali all dressed up for her pre-school Valentine's party, complete with a heart-shaped hairdo. I'm sure her teacher was surprised to see that I can actually do her hair since we usually opt for crazy-hair Tali or a quick pony tail Tali.

Liz got a heart-shaped hairdo for Valentine's Day also, but I somehow missed out on getting a picture of it. This is her making her Valentine cards for her classmates and friends. She's really crafty and puts a lot of time and effort into her creations. After Liz had spent about two hours on her cards, Josh came in from playing outside, opened his box of Valentines, scribbled his name under "From" on all of them, and was done in less than 10 minutes. I thought Liz might be a little jealous, but she rolled her eyes and continued to admire her beautiful cards.

Easter Sunday! Here are the kids all dolled up in their Easter clothes. The grass wasn't green yet then, but it was a warm, barefoot-type of day.

The Heart Run and the Salmon Run. We usually run the Heart Run every year because it's part of the elementary school Healthy Futures series. Huffman Elementary tries to have the biggest team, so the kids are always really excited for it. I made a goal to run it myself about 8 months ago because I thought it'd be a good motivator to keep running throughout my pregnancy. It worked. I ran the whole thing, but only because I had to keep up with Liz and she ran the whole thing. Like I said, she's a little competitor! Matt ran it in 17:17, Josh in 25:31 and Liz and I in 29:10. Tali's more of a stop and smell the flowers type girl so she stayed home that morning.

Liz and I enjoyed running the Heart Run together so much that she, Josh and I decided to do the Salmon Run two weeks later. The scenery was so beautiful that Liz's eyes kept wandering until she finally tripped at about mile 1. She just barely skinned her hands, but started crying and couldn't stop for the next 2.1 miles. Needless to say, that race wasn't as fun for the two of us. Josh had a great time though and it really was a beautiful morning.

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Fun with clothes. I laid out Tali's clothes for her and this is what she came up with for "how to put on frilly triple-roll socks." It reminded me of how I dressed at her age.

The second picture is pretty consistent with what happens every night at bedtime. Swapping PJs was a new adventure on this particular night, but every night at about 7:45pm, some type of giggling and silly mischief takes place in order to stretch bedtime from 8pm to more like 8:30pm. They know that if they come up with something really funny, I'll laugh instead of continually repeating my mantra "Get ready for bed."